Poperings Hommelbier Fresh Harvest - Nouvelle Récolte - Nieuwe Oogst (Limited Edition 2025)
Leroy Breweries (Brouwerij Van Eecke / Watou / Het Sas ) in Watou, West Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Blonde / Pale / Amber Regular|
Score
6.87
|
|
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4
24/IV/25 - 75cl bottle from Mr. Hop (webshop) @ Peter’s 50th birthday party, Cabane Banane (Gent), BB: 1/I/28 (2025-403) Thanks to Peter for sharing today’s beers!
Clear orange blond beer, small creamy white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: herbal, a bit yeasty, lots of banana, a bit dirty, meh. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: a bit sourish, weird, lots and lots of banana, malty, bit sweet. Aftertaste: some funky dirty touch, a bit fruity, sourish touch, meh, doesn’t taste very good.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
This year’s edition of a long tradition of ‘fresh hop’ versions of the classic Poperings Hommelbier – not literally ‘fresh hop beers’, but dry-hopped with the hop harvest of the autumn past (in this case 2024). They have been doing this for thirteen years now and I must say that I like this series quite a lot, for representing a kind of “Belgian IPA” which is not trying to be one, or be an IPA of any kind – just a classic hoppy Belgian ale, no strings attached. From a corked 75 cl bottle bought at the Colruyt supermarket in Sint-Denijs-Westrem. Snow white, cobweb-lacing, thick, foamy, stable head over an ochre-tinged deep golden blonde, hazy robe, more deeply peachy further on. Aroma of chamomile, sweetclover, ripe peach, banana peel, artisanal honey, cooked sweet potato, tulips, brioche bread, pear, white soap to even lavender touch, red apple, melting powder sugar, thyme, spring blossoms, apricot jam somewhere. Fruity onset, banana, peach and red apple notes but not overly sweet, lively carbonated with pleasant minerally effects; smooth, rounded body, cereally-bready pale malts with a thin layer of honeyish residual sugars on top but nowhere near cloyingly sweet. Before things do get too sweet, though, the hops come in, establishing a long, earthy, leafy and very floral bitterness, paired with retronasal aroms of field flowers, freshly cut grass and – more than anything but it could be the time of year – spring blossoms (which are everywhere now). The alcohol warms a little bit but does not disturb the flavours. Seems a bit sweeter and more perfumey-blossomy than I remember from earlier editions, more ‘outgoing’ in a certain way – a sweet fruit tree spring blossom edition if you will, but enjoyed on a beautiful April day, what more can one want. Easy drinking, technically solid, ‘happy’ and hoppy Belgian ale – I cannot have anything against that.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8
Bottle with cork 0,75 litr: Slightly hazy gold/yellow coloured brew with an nicely dry bitter taste with nicely hints of lemon, some grapefruit and orange.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
75cl bottle from Colruyt Etterbeek Jourdan.
F: huge, white, very long lasting.
C: gold, hazy.
A: nice green hoppy, a lot of banana, floral, bit spicy, hay, bready touch, bit soap.
T: medium malty base, bready with prominent hoppy long lasting bitterness, hay, banana, dandelion, grapefruits, spicy, dry on the palate, medium to high carbonation, nice hoppy Belgian ale, for 4,5€ very enjoyable for me.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle from Willems Grobbendonk. Color: Clear golden, white head. Aroma: Malty and hoppy at the same time. Taste: Malty, grainy, notes of bread, a lot of great green fresh hop and hints of citrus (orange (zest)). Moderate sweet and over moderate to medium bitterness, very long lasting dry-ish hoppy finish. Medium body, average carbonation. another nice edition of this classic Belgian beer.